2. digital
  3. 1318363766

dac advice

HI my system is Rogue Tempest, appletv for my music it is in lossless,AIFF if I remember,and a pair of Mark&Daniel's Mini's, looking for a dac used or new $500 to $800 approx,considering psaudio dac iii, also easten electric dac,peachtree dac-it,has anyone heard these and what else would you suggest,I am looking for musicallity,smooth analog sound is most important to me, thanks for any imput, Nick
happynick
davide256's avatar
davide256
362 posts
 
I'd be curious to see if you get any reponses on the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, its in the same range. I was initially thinking about same price range but realized in that range there are 3 trade offs
(a) asynch USB doesn't come with
(b)there no preamp feature built in so you can't get the full transparency of going direct from DAC to amp if your source has no digital volume control
(c) support for speeds above 96khz isn't ideal for fidelity.
So the jump to around $1500 for Benchmark or Wyred4Sound DAC does look to pay off and is on my radar for next upgrade.
kbarkamian
647 posts
 
I use a Rega DAC with my Apple TV (Apple Lossless files). Smooth, warm, and very turntable like in it's sound. Not artificially though.

With the ATV, get a glass toslink cable, as I found that makes a big difference. I use a Sonicwave glass cable from Amazon for about $25. Far better than any audiophile non-glass cable I've tried. I also use an Audioquest C-7 power cable with the ATV (the $75 or so one). Also made a good difference, contrary to what I thought it would/should do.

The Rega DAC is going for around $800 or so here.
meiwan
399 posts
 
I own the EE minimax and highly recommend it.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
4,382 posts
 
I like the Centrance DACmini. It goes for $795 (new) and has a nice headphone amp as well. I haven't hear the others you mentioned.
The one word I would use to describe it is--clarity. It sounded great and when I got a media app (BitPerfect) it really came to life. Remember, its the way it works in your system that makes or breaks the deal. Having a tube amp would be a big plus as the DACmini is quite adept at pulling out all the details.

Good luck in your search
rbstehno
916 posts
 
save your money and get a good dac like the wyred 4 sound dac 2. it blows the other dacs away mentioned above. if you want to get better, you will need to jump up to $5000 or more. i used to own dacs from audio research, music hall, manley, and others and the w4s dac 2 is far better. you have your choice of an async usb 24/192 input as well as your coax and toslink. this dac can also serve as your preamp if you only have digital sources.
More to discover